Music

Tibetan “Monks” Breakdance in Honor of Late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch

Sunday marked the second yahrzeit of the late, great Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, who died on May 4, 2012. Last year, the little park in Brooklyn Heights where he learned to ride a bike as a kid was rededicated in his honor. This year lifelong fan Frank Anselmo, creative director of advertising firm KNARF New York, orchestrated a tribute with a bit more levity: four breakdancers dressed as monks (Yauch was a Buddhist) performing on a makeshift dancefloor in the middle of Union Square:

Friday’s mini-monk-dance-mob was part of the promotion for the third annual MCA Day, which took place on Saturday. Anselmo told the New York Daily News that the robes were ordered directly from Nepal, and that a surprising number of people had asked him if the dancers were actually monks. “Of course they’re not real monks,” he clarified.

For Anselmo, who started listening to the Beastie Boys at the age of 11, the project combined his work and passion in equal parts: “They’re a New York band and I grew up with them. There are not a lot of bands you can grow with. My whole life I’ve had their music. It’s part of my DNA.”